5 Feb 2016

1. I noticed that each week I complain about the bad weather ! It really makes me feel caged ! I run out of outside pictures, can't walk in the woods or parks, or visit special places etc. I am not at all a window shopper or boutique visitor, which leaves me with museums shopping centers and Galleries. I can't sit the whole day in a station and watch people ! From my three umbrellas, there is none left, I forgot them somewhere and have to buy a new one or better two !

That's Waterloo's main street ! Rather wet isn't it ?

As my friends are in the same case, what do we do ? We get together and chat ! That's less boring.

2. Fortunately I have my blogwork. I have finally time to file my pictures in the right folders read blogs, make comments and surf the net for all kind of things. I have also continued to read this blog since its very beginning and have noticed that I already complained about the weather ! My neighbor is again hospitalized and her daughter asked me to walk the dog once in the afternoon, which I did with pleasure, the funny thing was, it stopped raining probably because I went outside.

3. It's interesting to read and also how blogging has changed, less funny games and themes we played together as groups. Many old bloggers have moved to Facebook, which is not the same at all, or to this useless Google+, where you are not even allowed to comment on blogs without becoming member of this thing.

4. Nicole had a new TV channel provider installed which comes together with internet and telephone in a package. I went over to connect her tablet to her own internet and we also tried out the new channels. The only one who enjoys rain is Charlie the dog, he doesn't bother to be wet like a sponge.

5. We had lunch together in the "Lunch Garden" having Charlie with us is always a lot of fun because everybody who loves dogs asks if they could pet him, how old he is and start to chat about their own dogs or cats.

This time Charlie was especially happy because for lunch we had half a chicken !He was delighted that it was too much for us and kindly helped us to finish the plate ! He never begs, he only puts his head on my lap and looks at me ! Who could resist such a look.

4 Feb 2016

Nicole had invited two friends to "our" Chinese restaurant, which they didn't know. Of course I came too. The two friends turned out to be like giggling teenagers, despite their vintage age. We also behaved like this, but without smart phones, we just talked in direct and laughed loud. We made quite some noise, because one of the girls had a very loud voice, her husband doesn't hear very well. From time to time we told her to speak a little less noisy, but that never lasted for long.

Besides our table was another one with 4 ladies. They were not noisy at all they were very silent despite the fact that they seemed to have a lot of fun too. They looked like a group of Italian Mammas speaking with their hands but no voice, all four of them were death and dumb. They made big smiles and signs to us and we smiled back and made signs that the food was very good.

At one moment I was at the buffet and one of the deaf women hit me at my arm and pointed on the sauces. I understood that she asked me which of the sauce was spicy. I pointed to the one which was not spicy at all and shook my head and then on one where I opened my mouth and panted like an old dog. She understood and we both smiled.

Later I thought it would be nice to learn the sign language and read on lips. I wonder if in all languages the signs are the same. I asked Mrs. Wikipedia and learned that "A common misconception is that all sign languages are the same worldwide or that sign language is international. Aside from the pidgin International Sign, each country generally has its own, native sign language, and some have more than one, though sign languages may share similarities to each other, whether in the same country or another one.It is not clear how many sign languages there are. The 2013 edition of Ethnologue lists 137 sign languages.

What a pity ! I thought at least the deaf and mute people had the same language all over the world !

If it would have been the same for all languages I would have tried to learn, I once had a deaf friend when I was 18, she read on my lips. At that time I would have learned, but there were no schools where I lived. Now I am too lazy and so I remain with my personal body language. If I want to tell that somebody had been strangled, I just put my hands around my neck open my mouth and let my tongue hang out, while I have a cross eyed look. I think that is understandable for everybody.

3 Feb 2016

2 Feb 2016

As I have worked as a volunteer during the festivities of the bicentenary of the Waterloo battle, I like to go there from time to time just to see if with all these renovations and changes there are more tourists now.

Of course January is not the ideal month to visit the site, but still the other years there were people who visited the site and had a warm or cold drink in the various restaurants or cafés around the Lion.

1 Feb 2016

I am really happy that this dull month is finally over ! In February there are a lot of things going on also concerning the yearly carnival festivities.

We had so much rain and storm that if you hadn't to, you stayed home. That's what I did the whole day. I put some order in my photos in my computer and watched some little series on TV. Outside the wind howled around the house and the rain hit the windows.

Fortunately the day before I had lunch with Nicole and two of her friends in our Chinese restaurant and we had a lot of fun and as usual the food was delicious. At 3 pm we finally left, I think otherwise the owner would have thrown us out. After that we went for a coffee to Nicole and continued to chat, until the phone was ringing, it was Mr. G. anxious that he would have nothing to eat for supper ! I had a take away plate in my car ! I hadn't realized that it was already 6.30 pm !! So I left and returned home, and Mr. G. was happy with his Chinese food. The next day Nicole told me that the others stayed until 11 pm, and only left because the other husband had called to know where his wife was !!

Sunday I went to Ilona to set up her new tablet. It worked quite well and without major problems. She had served a "Masala" tea which she had bought in our Indian shop. I had never tasted a tea like this. It was really spicy and prickled in your mouth like red pepper ! After the first surprise I liked it. Must be very good for a sore throat.

She had been busy with her new painting with this bad weather it was the ideal occupation.

Translate

About Me

I love painting, writing, travelling and photography. My favorit models are my four cats which I observe with fun and humor. I am German, married to an Italian and we live in Waterloo (15 km from Brussels) / Belgium since many years. Waterloo is a famous place to many tourists, because Napoleon lost his battle here against Wellington and other European countries.